BCCHardware

ZOTAC at CES 2015

Saturday, 10 January 2015 04:53
Last Updated on Tuesday, 13 January 2015 02:31
Written by Jason

ZOTAC was showing off their full lineup of ZBOX devices which no matter how many times you see them it is hard not to be impressed at the small size of their systems and the amount of performance they can pack in. The ZBOX Pico series was being shown off and is being offered in AMD and Intel powered solutions, both in a crazy small package that is small enough that you could fit it in your pocket.

The ZBOX series also includes the E-Series devices that are a little bit bigger than devices in the Pico series yet have enough power to easily power 4k displays @60 Hz all in a very small box. The E-Series EN860 that was being shown off features an Intel i5 4210U CPU with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M graphics card which makes the EN860 pack quite a punch in a small package and is enough power to replace most peoples desktop computers.

App Pick of the Week - Sky Force

Monday, 16 February 2015 19:49
Written by Benjamin "Zeus" Heide

We have just posted up another Android App Pick of the Week and this week we are firing up our afterburners and hitting the sky with Sky Force. This is a fun arcade-style top-down shooter that is a lot of fun and will keep you hooked for hours. Level up your weapons and blast those bad guys! Check it out, it's one of my all-time favorites.

Enjoy!

Master Chief: Coming to a Motorcycle Near You

Tuesday, 17 February 2015 04:26
Written by Benjamin "Zeus" Heide

NECA has just got their Master Cheif Petty Officer John-117 helment DOT-approved and it should be up for sale shortly. This is pretty cool and it makes me want to get my motorcycle license. Maybe this summer...

From the award-winning Halo video games, this detailed replica of Master Chief’s headgear is also a DOT-approved modular motorcycle helmet! Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is a central figure at the forefront of the war against the Covenant and rumored to be the lone survivor of the declassified SPARTAN-II project. This limited edition helmet has a convenient modular design with glove-friendly opening mechanism and full list of features.

Lenovo and Superfish

Friday, 20 February 2015 15:36
Written by Jason

Lenovo has been making headlines this week for all the wrong reasons thanks to a piece of adware that they were putting onto their systems called Superfish. While Superfish might sound delicious and a great name for a new kind of sushi, its main purpose in life is to inject additional ads into your browser (which isn't a good thing). Lenovo is aware of this issue and it appears that only systems shipped in a short period of October to December of 2014 were affected and the Superfish software has been removed from their systems shipped since that point.

Lenovo isn't the first company to get in trouble for pre-loading adware onto your new system, but it does bring up the point once again, will there ever be a day when I can order a new system from these big companies with no OS installed so I can have a computer without 500 app pre-installed?

The adware - dubbed Superfish - was potentially compromising their security, said experts.

The hidden software was also injecting adverts on to browsers using techniques more akin to malware, they added.

Lenovo faces questions about why and for how long it was pre-installed on machines - and what data was collected.

The company told the BBC in a statement: "Lenovo removed Superfish from the preloads of new consumer systems in January 2015. At the same time Superfish disabled existing Lenovo machines in the market from activating Superfish.

Samsung Lied - Smart TV's Are Indeed Spies

Monday, 23 February 2015 00:52
Written by Benjamin "Zeus" Heide

Samsung has some pretty nice gear - Smart TVs with integrated cameras for Skype calling as well as a host of other applications. The worry was at launch, "Will the TV spy on me with the camera?" Samsung assured us that no such action would or could take place. Well, they lied. These units have been indeed spying on users and Samsung knows this is and not doing anything about it. This is huge and I certainly won't be buying a new Samsung TV anytime soon.

Last week, the good folks at The Daily Beast dug through the company’s policy page to find that Samsung smart TVs were orchestrated to record everything you say and send them back to the company, which was later sent to an unidentified third-party player. This could be a major issue to many, as not all of us would be comfortable with the fact that all the conversations we have in front and around our TV set are being analyzed by someone.